Is Blizzard getting it right with Diablo 4?
Let’s talk about Diablo 4. The game was supposed to be the next Diablo. The game was supposed to be the next Diablo 2, well some thought it might be at least. This game was supposed to be amazing. There was a lot of hype and excitement. We are now nearly two months in and it seems the developers have reverted to their Diablo 3 ways and created a game with less “fun factor”. Is Blizzard getting it right with Diablo 4?
The greatest thing about D2/R is that if I just want to power through things and kill things, I’m going to go make myself a Javazon and go kill. They can roll through cows; they can roll through lots of things and they just smash. I can do a Blizz-baller and have similar results. Then there is the mother of all OP classes: Hammerdins. I just survive and kill everything in sight. There are always going to be classes that are OP. How do you get around that? You don’t. It is just what it is. A barbarian bouncing around will never be quite as effective as other classes, though a Zerker in the Pits is pretty fast! Attacking from afar and smashing hordes at once is always going to beat a single target character.
Necromancers are crazy good with Corpse Lance in D3 compared to just about everything else if you can stomach that play style, and it will in my opinion, always be overpowered compared to other classes. That doesn’t mean I’m just going to roll one. I’m going to play the way I enjoy and not worry about what you’re doing, because although Diablo 4 is a multiplayer game, I can, as many do, play solo if I choose. If the purpose of the game is to have fun, and you are having fun, you’re still going to be playing it for as long as that lasts.
Just to reiterate: Every class doesn’t have to have the same kill speed.
I would fix this in seasonal play by having separate ladders as they have in previous games. You can still be the first level 100 Druid or the first 100 Sorceress and feel accomplished. One character class may be more effective for many seasons compared to others, but you can still choose to push a class you enjoy and are effective at. Instead, the recent patches have tried to equalize all the classes overall killing speed (experience per hour is how I would measure that) so that all are equal. While doing that you are often thrown off the balance of everything. Nothing ends up being balanced. Based on that, the best way to level the playing field is to actually nerf stuff, then you have a patch like the one just released and now you see the dev team backtracking and admitting it was a mistake.
Honestly, in my opinion, it’s going to take about a year until the game is even remotely able to live up to the hype. In the early stages of its development, I found a Harlequin Crest quite early, and I was able to equip it, giving me access to all my skills. It was awesome and really cool. Now I can’t find one until Tier 4 nightmare? Let me find the cool items if they’re scaling up the equipment and stats and use a subpar version. Let me as a player decide when I want to switch it out or roll with it for a long time. There is so much that this game could do If the developers just didn’t get in their own way. Build a fun game and care a bit less about how each class plays out in endgame this early after release. Keep the game fun.
Monsters
On the subject of monsters, how about more variety? We have a few really cool monsters: Charging Beasts and Corpse Bows that both hit like a brick if you don’t take them out on the quick or avoid that charge. Overall, many of the monsters fall short of being more than just every other monster with a different attack. Both of the above-mentioned ones remind me of Yetis or Frenzytaurs. You can get repeatedly stunned or just split open because of their increased attack speed and greatly increased damage per hit. Overall, there is not a lot of variety in this game. Many monster types pose a minimal threat overall though the majority of the game. It seems like there are so many humans that you just face tank. To be frank, the Balrogs need a bump increase in damage. Their inferno breath needs a major damage bump, and they need a bit of damage increase from their sword too.
Auras need increased effectiveness. I like that I have to take out the monster who has the aura, but there aren’t any cool auras like they had in Diablo 2. How about lightning enchanted? How about fire enchanted? How about cold enchanted? Some Extra Strong LE/FE monster is a house, sure the elite increased damage or an added damage boost of an element, but I want all the minions to have the same modifiers, just a tad weaker. In D2/R if I wander to the Crystalline Passage in Hell and I didn’t have max or near max cold resist and didn’t chug a thawing potion, a variety of archers that spawn will tear you up. Add in a pack that had rolled with cold enchanted and holy crap you got eaten the heck up. Kindly, add these kinds of modifiers instead of just sticking to extra health to minions. I want monsters that inherit the bonuses just like the elite, and minions that are just as deadly if they aren’t removed.
Campaign
The campaign honestly, in my opinion, is terrible and felt super long because there were a lot of side quests that acted as a distraction to getting on with the main quest line. Rush let me know it isn’t bad if you just hyper-focus on it though, so maybe I’ll give it another go soon. In D2/R I felt the world was in peril and danger and if I didn’t stop the wanderer, all hell would break loose and there would be no savior. In Diablo 4? Eh, whatever. I’ll get to it when I can. I want the storyline to feel like I must complete it and the story is super compelling. Instead, we got a campaign that really didn’t add much to Sanctuary more than the Book of Lorath and of course, by the end, I didn’t slay Diablo. I’ll give a fist bump though for Mephisto’s background, as it was at least a good addition, and you can see how it’ll start to play out in an expansion or future seasons. I am probably in the minority, and this may seem a perplexing statement, but why can’t I redo the campaign? With a character on Tier 3 and Tier 4, why can’t I choose to restart the campaign like in previous games. Just let me have my faster movement speed with my mighty horse though if I did re-run it.
Conclusion
Maybe the open world of Diablo 4 isn’t to my liking yet as it makes the game feel like a grind. I’m still having fun and haven’t devoted even a shred of the amount of time I’ve spent into previous Diablos in their first two months. This allows me to try not to get too caught up in all the changes and nerfs and un-nerfs to classes, drop rates, drops, and everything in between. Play to enjoy.
For the season I’m trying a werewolf build, not a werebear build. I just got back from a nice trip to Northeast Michigan with my kids and visiting state parks so I’m fresh into the Season as of this morning. Weapons are armed and enemies are primed for slaying.
Back to the question of is Blizzard getting it right with Diablo 4? The game will get better and be equalized and then we can make a decision on whether Diablo 4 is a vast improvement on the previous games. Financially Diablo 4 was a success, so we know that we will get more content and hopefully more than one expansion which is more than I can say for D2 and D3 which only got one expansion each.
Right! Time to slay! Do let me know in the comments how you are currently feeling about the game.